Australopithecus bahrelghazali

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Australopithecus bahrelghazali

Extinct (fossil)

Scientific classification

Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Chordata
Class:	Mammalia
Order:	Primates
Family:	Hominidae
Subfamily:	Homininae
Genus:	Australopithecus
Species:	A. bahrelghazali

Binomial name

†Australopithecus bahrelghazali
Brunet et al., 1995

Australopithecus bahrelghazali is a fossil hominin that was first discovered in 1993 ¹by the paleontologist Michel Brunet in the Bahr el Ghazal valley near Koro Toro, in Chad, that Brunet named Abel. The find consists of a mandibular fragment, a lower second incisor, both lower canines, and all four of its premolars, still affixed within the dental alveoli. The specimen's proper name is KT-12/H1; "Abel" is the informal name, a dedication to Brunet's deceased colleague Abel (hominid) Brillanceau. The specimen located roughly 2,500 kilometers West from the East African Great Rift Valley and were only a few teeth and a partial jaw found in deposits thought to be 3.0 to 3.5 million years old.

The mandible KT-12/H1 discovered has similar features to the dentition of Australopithecus afarensis; this has brought researchears like William Kimbel to argue that Abel is not an exemplar of a separate species, but "falls within the range of variation" of the Australopithecus afarensis. By 1996, Brunet and his team classified KT 12/H1 as the holotype specimen for Australopithecus bahrelghazali ². This claim is difficult to substantiate,as the describers have kept KT 12/H1 locked away from the general paleoanthropological community, contrary to the International Code of Zoological Nomencalture 1999³. This species is a mystery to some as it is the only australopithecine fossil found in Central Africa. It is also of great importance as it was the first fossil to show that geographically there is a "a third window" of early hominid evolution.

1. Brunet, Michel, Beauvilain, Alain, Coppens, Yves, Heintz, Emile, Moutaye, Aladji H.E., and David Pilbeam. 1995 The first australopithecine 2,500 kilometres west of the Rift Valley (Chad).Nature 378: 273-275.

2.Brunet, M., A. Beauvilain, Y. Coppens, E. Heintz, A.H.E. Moutaye, and D. Pilbeam. 1996. "Australopithecus bahrelghazali, une nouvelle espece d'Hominide ancien de la region de Koro Toro (Tchad)." In Comptes Rendus des seances de l'Academie des Sciences, vol. 322, pp. 907-913.

3. Schwartz, Jeffrey H., and Ian Tattersal. 2005 The Human Fossil Record, vol.4: Craniodental Morphology of Early Hominids (Genra Australopithecus, Paranthropus, Orrorin) and Overview. John Wiley and Sons, New Jersey.